Twilight
by x0xmemyselfandix0x
Summary: I had never given much thought as to how I would die. But, dying in the place of someone I love, seems like a good way to go. Basically a Twilight version of Naruto. WARNING! Slow updates! Begining is slow. SasuSaku!
1. Prologue

Preface

I had never given much thought as to how I would die. But, dying in the place of someone I love, seems like a good way to go. You could go as far as to say noble even. I knew that if I had never gone to Konoha in the first place, I would not be looking Death in the face. Yet, I can't bring myself to regret the decisions that brought me here. They also brought me to _him. _When life throws you a dream so beyond any expectations you ever had for yourself, its best not to grieve for them when it comes to an end. The hunter in front of me closed the gap even further, and I closed my eyes, and waited for the final strike.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My mother drove me to Sacramento California's local airport with the windows rolled all the way down, letting the ninety degrees' heat wash over me. I was sitting shotgun, wearing my absolute favorite outfit; light green tank-top, knee-length white capris (sp?) with a green-and-white belt, a green heart ankle bracelet, and white flip-flops. I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. The only carry-on items I had with me were my white jacket, cell phone, iPod, and a couple magazines for if I was desperately bored.

Konoha was a small town outside of Tokyo, Japan, surrounded by a gigantic forest. Under a cover of near-constant cloud/tree cover and with a 95-percent humidity rate almost every day, Konoha was mine, and my hairs', literal hell hole. It was from this town that my mother had run away from with me when I was about a year old. It was from here that, in an effort from my mother to get me to get me closer to my father, I was dragged to every summer vacation until I finally put my foot down five years ago at the tender age of twelve. And I don't think she blames me all that much. I mean, seriously, yearly plane tickets from California to Japan and back aren't exactly cheap.

It was to this city that I was now exiling myself to now, and considering how much I detested Konoha, I was feeling quite proud of myself. I loved Sacramento. I loved the beaches and the water. I loved the heat and sunshine. And I would miss it all terribly while I was away.

"Sakura, you know you don't have to do this, right?" my mother, Rose, said to me for the thousandth time, while I stood just outside the boarding area.

My mother looked a lot alike me, only with shorter red hair, blue eyes, was a bit taller than me, and had laugh lines around her mouth. Looking at her, my stomach did little flip-flops at the thought of leaving my loving, trusting, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself. Well, that's not totally true. She would have her new husband, Mason, to help her out when she needed someone to call and tell her what was needed at the grocery store, pick her up, tell her she forgot the dry-cleaning again, etc. I guess she could survive. Maybe.

"Mom, I _want _to go." I lied. She saw through me easily and quite honestly, it's not that hard to do considering that I have always been an awful liar. But I've told this lie so many times now that if you didn't know me you would think I was telling the truth.

"Don't forget to tell Senju that I said hi, alright."

"I won't, don't worry."

"I'll see you real soon honey. Always remember that you can come home any time you want. I can come back any time you need me."

Despite her words, I could see the sacrifice and tears forming in her eyes.

"Mom, for the last time, you don't have to worry, I'll be fine. It'll be great. I love you." I said quickly, hoping to stop the waterworks. I really couldn't stand the sight of tears, especially from her. She always said that I got that trait from my dad.

We hugged for the last time, I got on the plane, and she was gone.

It was a ten-and-a-half hour plane ride from California to Tokyo, then about another hour's drive to Konoha. The plane ride didn't bother me so much. I could just catch up on some much needed sleep while listening to Daughtry on my iPod. The drive was another matter entirely.

My dad, Senju Haruno, was the police chief of Konoha's police department. He was always so serious about his job and always had his gun on him, even if the biggest crime in Konoha's history was some stupid teenager braking into Old Man Miller's rusty old 1957 Chevy truck. He rarely smiled and always had this air about him that seemed like he could kill you in a second and when he looked at you with those piercing green eyes, it was like he was looking into your soul. Not exactly a comforting feeling. He had been fairly nice over the whole deal. Like most people who knew me, he was generally confused about my decision to stay with him in Konoha. My "distaste" of the place hadn't exactly been kept a secret.

When I landed, the sky was cloudy. Typical. Senju was waiting at the gate and gave me an awkward one-armed hug and an attempt at a smile before leading me to his police car. I suppressed a sigh when I saw its bright red and blue colors. I always hated that car. Not so much the car itself, but the fact that it was a police car in general. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop car. Little was said during the drive, just a few comments about my hair, (Has it gotten longer?) the weather, (Warmer this year than in the last ten.) and school (How have your grades been?).

When I saw the little sign on the side of the run-down road (Welcome to Konoha!), I felt my breath and heart stop for a second in remembrance. Konoha was an old part of Japan. Back in the early, early, _early_ days of the world, it had been said to have once been a ninja village! I mean, how ridiculous is that! Anyway, it had burned down back in the early 1750's and built a bit more modern. The people here have stayed here for generations. Grandparents knew each other as kids and so have their great-grandparents. So basically, I was going to be the strange newcomer from America. Great, just great.

We pulled up to the same, small, blue house that he and my mom had bought when they were newlyweds. Sitting in the driveway was my baby. A dull emerald-colored 2005 VAUXHALL VECTRA Hatchback that I had paid for all myself on minimum wage and very large tips at the Tower Cafe. Turns out that by winking at male customers you can easily get on their good sides. And by their good sides, I meant their wallets good side.

Walking inside, I saw everything seemed to be exactly the same as the last time I visited, only with newer pictures of me and Rose. Senju helped carry my stuff upstairs, huffing and puffing along the way. Unlike most girls, shopping was a rare occasion for me, but when I do shop, I come back with basically a whole new wardrobe. Hey, it's a great way to mix-and-match. Walking inside my room, I saw that it too was basically the same. The wooden floor, the picked ceiling, the white curtains, and some other modifications consisting of a bigger bed, a new desk, and a computer. My dad carried the rest of my stuff in, stood around awkwardly for a minute, and then went downstairs to watch baseball. One great thing about Senju; he doesn't hover.

I unpacked all of my things in the dresser and closet and grabbed my pajamas, which consisted of some old sweats and a random camisole, then took my bag with all my bathroom necessities that I would need to take a shower with me into the single bathroom that I would have to share with Senju. I was trying really hard not to dwell this on this fact.

As the hot water pounded on my back and neck while I scrubbed the sweat out of my hair with my favorite vanilla shampoo and conditioner, I could pretend I was back home for a moment. When I finished showering and put on my pajamas, I looked at the mirror and stared at my reflection. Maybe it was the light but already, my skin looked even paler than before, almost ghost-like. My green eyes had some light bags under them, from the nights I had stayed up, worrying about this whole thing. My waist-length, damp pink hair stuck out everywhere and it _seriously _annoyed me; the fact that it would take forever to completely dry out, and the color. Pink hair. Of all the hair colors I could have had, I had to have gotten pink. Guess that's what happens when your mom has red hair and your dad has white.

After I was done staring at myself and working through the rats' nest that was my hair, I went downstairs to say goodnight to Senju, who by that time had moved onto a basketball game, then went back upstairs to my room. Sitting down on my bed, I looked outside my window. Light green, dark green, and even more green. An alien planet, nothing like the sparse brown desert and immense blue ocean of California. Thinking about California made me think about my mom again. I let a few tears escape at her expense, and then stopped them. I would save the real crying gag for later that night, when I had to really think about the next day when I started school again.

Konoha High School had a frightening total of five hundred and twenty-three, now twenty-four, students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home.

Maybe if I looked like a person from California did, blonde hair, tan, sporty, then I could find a niche. Hah! Who am I kidding? If I couldn't fit in at a school with four thousand, then I definitely couldn't here. There was no tan on me anywhere that I could see and I severely lacked in the sports department due to serious lack of hand-eye coordination. That and the pink hair. Always did get teased about that back home. And it was completely natural, despite numerous claims that I dyed it. And the fact that for some strange reason, I never really got along with people my age. Maybe my brain was just wired differently than theirs. I just didn't see things the same way they did. But the cause didn't matter that much. Only the effect. And tomorrow was going to be the start of it.

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Hi, review and commet! First fanfic so no flames! Tell me if I should contine!


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey people, sorry it took me a while to update, but I did warn you that it would. Things keep happening, projects, homework, jackasses, my boyfriend :], etc. Anyway, here is Chapter 2!**

**BTW I need at least ten new reviews before the next chapter will be posted!**

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Chapter 2

I didn't sleep that well that night, even after the crying gag. The absence of waves in the background made the night feel to quiet, where you could hear a pin drop. For some reason, the quiet kept me up until the first rays of sun peaked over the edges of the treetops. Then I was able to drop into the sweet black oblivion that was sleep for a few hours before my stupid alarm woke me up.

Looking out the window, all I could see was fog. Dismay swpt up to me. Where was the sun? How could it be so freaking green outside if the sun never made its way out of the clouds?!

Breakfast was the quiet event I expected. Senju quietly wished me good luck at school. I only nodded in return, knowing it wouldn't help. Senju left first for the police station that was his life, again wishing me good luck. As the clock ticked closer to when i needed to leave, I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up around me, filling the kitchen. I needed to move around or I was going to start hyperventilating. Walking out into the living room, I looked at the framed pictures adorning the matle above the fireplace and walls. You could see that Senju had never really gotten over Rose. Either that or he was too lazy to take the pictures down. There was the wedding picture in Las Vegas hanging right by the staircase so it was impossible to not see. A picture of Senju, Rose, and me as a baby was hanging right in front of the fireplace. Then there was all of my school pictures up until last year. Ugh. Those were definitely going to come down for as long as I was living here.

After several more minutes of looking around the house, I decided that it was now acceptable to head to school. Climbing into my car, I turned the heater on at full blast. It was surprisingly cold out for this time of year. Finding the school was so easy it should be criminal. Like everything in this town, all buildings, not homes anyway, were just off the highway. A small sign indicated at the end of a vast driveway that it was Konha High School. It was basically a big, five-story, faded white building with trees all around it. In a weird way, gave the impression of a mental institution. It was just missing the metal bars around the numerous windows. Parking near the entrance, I went inside. Just to the left of the door was a door with 'FRONT OFFICE' printed by the handle. Walking in, I saw that it was a well lit, warm, small room. It had a little waiting area by the door and just ahead was an long counter, cutting the room in half with tons of advertisments for yearbooks, book fairs, and a dance scattered the counter was an old, fairly mousy woman with light brown hair and wearing a plain blue t-shirt, which immediately made me feel over dressed. She was currently talking on the phone and filling out a piece of paper. I walked up to the desk and waited till she was done talking.

"Hello my dear, can I help you?" she said looking up at me after putting the paper in a giant stack off to the side and hanging up the phone.

"I'm Sakura Haruno," and the awarness became clear in her eyes. It figures. The whole twon must know about me. The great, respected Cheif of Police's daughter, come home at last.

"Oh yes, I was expecting you." Digging through a particuarly thick stack of papers and pulled out serveral sheets of paper. "These are maps of the school, one for each floor. Now, as you go to each class I will need for you to get each teacher to sign this paper right here. And this here is your schedule. Will you need help getting to your classes?"

"No thank you, I think I will manage on my own." With that said, I walked out. Standing just outside the office, I looked at the schedule.

First Period: English with Kakashi Hatake

Second Period: Goverment with Asuma Sarutobi

Third Period: Trigonometry with Iruka

Fourth Period: Spanish with Kurenai Yuuhi

Lunch

Fifth Period: Biology II with Tsunade

Sixth Period: Gym with Mighto Gai

Well, maybe this year won't be so bad, with the exception of gym. At my old school, you only needed two years of gym. Here it was four years. This place really is my personal hell hole. I had an unfortunate tendecy to hurt myself, and the other people around me, in gym class.

Outside the front office, more students had appeared, talking and laughing about who knows what. Looking at the maps, I saw that English was on the second floor and started that way. I could already tell it was going to be a long day.

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**Sorry it took so long and was such a short chapter and was kinda rushed but as I said before, lots of stuff was happening. I just wanted to give you something and let you all know that there is no way that i'm giving up this story. Next chapter will be better and longer, promise!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey people its me again! I made this one extra long to make up for the short chapter last time and the long wait. Again, I know your probably mad at me for taking so damn long but these things take time. You try finding time to write when your teachers want to bury you with homework, projects on books that are boring as _hell, _and your gym teacher works you so hard that you get a stress fracture in your leg. Now, according to the doctor, I have to stay off my leg until it heals, take a million different pills twice a day and continually ice my leg. Joy. Besides, I do have a life outside. Again, I need more reviews before the next chapter can be released so tell your friends to review! And sorry for grammer mistakes, I'm kinda loopey on the pills right now.**

**Oh, and I don't own Naruto or Twilight (Really wish I did though)**

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Chapter 3

Finding the classroom seemed easier said than done. I had to go up a staircase, straight for two hallways, turn right, another right, and a left, then walk halfway down the hall to reach the door. Apparently, the school is even bigger than the outside suggests. Eventually, I made it to the classroom. There were two girls walking in front of me. A porclain-colored, long haired brunette, and an equally pale girl with black hair. At least I don't have to worry about my skin sticking out. Walking up to Mr. Hatake, a white haired man with a mask covering most of his face (creepy),who was reading a book that looked like kids under the age of eighteen should not even get near, and handed him the slip. He didn't do anything other than sign the slip, widen his eyes when I introduced myself, say "Welcome to class, there's an open seat in the back.", and then got back to reading his little book. Well, at least he didn't make me stand up in front of everybody and introduce myself. That would totally suck.

Yet everyone in class seemed to know who I was, even the people who came in after me. Again, I blame the pink hair. Its way too obvious for my own good. Even though I was in the back of the class, the other kids still managed to sneak looks at me. Keeping my eyes away from them, I looked at the reading list Mr. Hatake gave me. Animal Farm, To Kill A Moking Bird, Romeo and Juilet. The basics. Maybe I could ask Mom if she could send me my old essays. Probably not, since she would say it was cheating. Oh well.

When the bell finally rang, it scared the crap out of me! I must of jumped five feet in the air! Seriously, who makes the bell a freaking high-pitched whistle! After a second or two of me griping the desk, trying to swallow my organs, a messy, brown-haired, brown-eyed boy who had red, upside-down triangles on his cheeks and reminded me of a dog for some stange reason came up to my desk.

"You're Sakura Haruno, right?" He looked like one of those over-helpful guys.

"Yea." I replied, still a little breathless from the bell incident. Five kids in front of me turned to openly stare when I spoke.

"What's your next class?" he asked.

"Goverment with Asuma." I replied immediately. To avoid all the staring during class, I commited to mesmerizing my schedule and part of the school.

"Sweet, your right next door to me. I could show you the way." Yep, definetly the over-helpful type. "I'm Kiba by the way."

"Nice to meet you Kiba, and thanks."

"No problem."

Walking out of the classroom, I could've _sworn _people were walking close enough behind us so that they could eavesdrop. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid.

"So, how different is California from here? I've never been out of Konoha so I'm curious about the outside world." he asked suddenly.

"Really different. For one thing, there's no forest surronding you, its the Pacific Ocean. And the building are a lot bigger and there are hotels, casinos, drug wars, the whole shabang."

"Wow, sounds great. Does it rain there a lot?"

"Every now and again. Usually just enough so that the palm trees and occasional grass patches don't die."

"What's it like there usually?"

"Really sunny most of the year but in winter it only drops a couple degrees."

"You don't seem like you have much of a tan." He said, eyeing me.

"My mother was, like, three-fourths albino."

He studied me more closely, making me sigh. Guess trees and humor don't mix. At this rate, I'll forget how to use sarcasm. Taht would totally suck since sarcasm was my middle name. Kiba walked me up two floors and around some corners and brought me right up to the door. He asked a few more questions about California but I could tell he didn't want to leave.

"Good luck with the rest of the day. Maybe we'll get lucky and have another class together." He sounded really hopeful.

Smiling vaguely at him, I waved my goodbye and walked into class.

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion. My Trigonometry teaher, Mr. Iruka, (I don't know his last name) who was already on my DIE AND BURN IN HELL LIST because of the subject he taught, was the only teacher who made me introduce myself to the class. My face flushed to the color of a tomatoe and my voice cracked twice. So embarrising.

After two classes, I was starting to see some familiar faces. There always was someone who was brave enough to come up to me, introduce themselves, and ask about what I though of Konoha. Most of the time I just lied to them cause really, what was I supposed to say? "Hey, I'm Sakura and I think Konoha should burn down to the ground again." Yea, I'm sure that will go well. At least I never needed to use the map.

One girl, Ino, sat by me in both Trigonometry and Spanish and walked me to the cafeteria, talking about what I assumed to be the school gossip. She was two or three inches taller than my five foot, eight inches. She had pulled her long, blonde hair into a high ponytail that just added another inch to her height, and that just made me feel even smaller compared to her. I smiled at her and nodded a lot while she talked about the million and one teachers at school and the classes they taught. She was on a roll and I wasn't going to be the one to try to stop her.

We sat with a bunch of her friends near the end of the humongous cafeteria at one of the large, circular tables. She introduced me to them and I forgot all of their names as soon as she moved onto the next one. Kiba from English class waved at me from a few tables away. I smiled and waved back.

It was there, sitting in the cafeteria, trying to make conservation with seven extremely curious strangers, that I first saw them.

There were sitting at a table in the corner of the lunchroom, as far away from my table as possible. There were five of them. Three boys, two girls. They weren't talking to each other. They weren't looking at each other. They weren't eating the food in front of them. They weren't even gawking at me like most of the other kids in the lunchroom so it was safe to stare at them. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention.

They didn't look a thing alike. With the boys, one had some serious muscule on him, like, heavy-weight champion muscule, with straight, white hair. Another was a bit shorter, and leaner, but you could still see the muscules through his shirt, with bright red hair. He also had a weird marking on the corner of his forehead but I couldn't ell what it was. The last was lanky, less bulky, but still muscular, with black-blue hair. He seemed the most boyish of the three, who looked like they should be in college, or maybe even teachers in the red-head's case.

The girls were complete opposites from each other. One was tiny. And I mean tiny! Like five foot two inches, five foot three inches. She was pixielike, thin in the extreme and had beautiful, shoulder-lenght, dark brown hair. The taller one had an amazing figure. The kind that you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the kind that made all the other girls take a serious hit to their self-esteem just by being in the same room as her. Her hair was an even more brilliant color of red than the boys, waving beautifully all the way down to the middle of her back.

Yet, despite the differences between them, they were exactly alike. They were all chalky white, the palest of all the students I had seen, paler than me, the albino. I didn't know that it was possible for someone to get that pale! They all had very dark eyes, despite the differences in hair tones and colors. They had dark circles under their eyes, like they were being derprived from sleep, or were recovering from a broken nose. But the latter couldn't be true, since their noses were perfectly straight and angular.

But those aren't the reasons why I couldn't look away.

I stared because their faces, so different, yet so similar, were devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They had the faces that you only saw on air-brushed covers of beauty magiznes or portrayed as angels in a famous painting or statue. The kind of beauty that couldn't possibly exist naturally. I couldn't decide who was more beautiful, the red-haired girl, or the black-haired boy.

As I watched them, the small girl got up with her tray, unopened soda, unbitten pizza, and glided across the room to dump her tray, then dance back to the table faster than I would have thought possible. Something told me that the others were just as graceful, even the bulky one.

"Who are _they_?"

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**For all the Naruto fans out there, take a guess at which vampire is which naruto character. Reward for who correctly answeres first!**

**Dedicated to all my BFFs in Ohio!!! Hope you guys like it!!!!**

**Thanks to the following:**

**EmoVampireAlchemist**

**babygirl1998**

**x0x0sakiXoXo97**

**_THANKS A TON FOR ALWAYS REVIEWING AND MAKING ME FEEL LOVED!!!!!! YOU ALL GET GIGANTIC COOKIES!!!!!_**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 is offically here!!!! Okay, since I'm probably going to be doing the whole Twilight series, I'm going to make it my mission to write really, really, _really _long chapters from now on. Like, at least 2,500-3,000 words or something. But for now, you guys are going to have to be patient cause it takes me long enough to get the chapters as long as they are now. Anyway, enough with my rambling, to the story!**

**P.S. I don't own Naruto or Twilight!**

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_Recap: "Who are they?"_

Chapter 4

Ino stopped talking to the brunette girl with her hair in two buns sitting next to her and glanced over to where I was pointing at, but I had a feeling that she already knew who I was talking about from my tone. But as I spoke, the black haired boy suddenly looked at our table, glanced at Ino for a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered over to me. I quickly ducked my head in surprise and embarrassment at being caught staring, but he looked away even faster than me, as if I had called him and he had just glanced over as an involuntary reflex.

Ino giggled lightly before answering. "Thats black haired one is Sasuke Uchiha and the white haired one is Suigetsu Uchiha, and the red-heads are Karin and Gaara Romanus. The little brunette girl is Matsuri Winuski. They are the foster children of Dr. Fugaku and his wife, Mikoto."

Glancing at them, the black haired boy who was looking at me was currently juggling the apple in between his hands, and what-looked-to-be talking to the wall, yet I knew he was talking to the others sitting at the table.

Strange, unpopular names. Something probably used back when Konha was a "ninja" village. Maybe that was a thing here. Ino and Kiba's name were like that too.

"They are...really good-looking." I paused as I struggled to describe what was probably the biggest understatement of the century.

"Your telling me, but they are all _together_! Like, together, together. Suigetsu and Karin, Gaara and Matsuri. And they _live_ together!"

"Weird." I agree, looking back at them. I could understand her astonishment. Even in California this would cause a serious uproar and would be the subject of much gossip for a while.

"They don't look related at all." I stated.

"They're all foster children. Gaara and Karin are brother and sister and Sasuke and Suigestu are half-brothers, I think. Matsuri is an only child. Besides, Dr. Fugaku is way too young for his kids to be in high school. He's in his late twentys or early thirties, I think. But the kids have been with Mikoto since they were eight. She's like their aunt or something."

"Wow, thats really nice of them to be taking care of all of them, especially when they are still so young and everything." I said.

"Yeah, I guess." Ino admitted a bit reluctently. I got the distinct impression tthat she didn't like them for some reason. Jealousy most likely from the almost-glowering looks she keeps throwing at them. "I don't think Mikoto can have kids though." she added, as if that lessoned their kindness.

Through out the entire conversation, my eyes kept flickering between Ino and the table where they all sat at. Nothing had changed. In a way, that was totally unatural. Normal high school kids can't stop moving. I admit, I am one of those non-stop movers. I always have to do something, even if it was pick at my nails or stare out the window of a car.

"Have they always lived here? I don't remember ever seeing them here on one of my trips."

"No, they just moved here two years ago from some far-off remote area like Alaska, or something." she replied in a voice that made me feel kinda stupid for not knowing that.

Pity and relief ran though me. Pity, because, even though they were the drop-dead gourgous supermodel kind of people, they were still outsiders and weren't completly accepted. Relief, because, I wasn't the only newcomer here, and certainly not the most intersesting by far. While I was looking at them, the more boyish one, the black-haired Uchiha, looked at me with curiosity evident in his eyes. I met his gaze, watching his face hold some kind of unmet expectation.

"Which one is the black-haired one again?" I asked, looking away finally from his intense gaze.

Ino giggled lightly before answering. "That's Sasuke Uchiha. He's totally gorgous but I wouldn't try if I were you. Apparently, no girl here is good enough for him." She sniffed, and I bit the inside of my cheeks to stop myself from smiling at her. Wonder when she got turned down. Glancing over at the boy, Sasuke, I could see him with a smirk on his face with his head turned to the side, as if he had heard every word we said.

Soon after, the five Uchihas left, and as I guessed earlier, all of them were inhumanly graceful. It gave me chills just watching them. Sasuke didn't look at me again.

I stayed at my table longer than I would have at California, just for the simple fact that I didn't want to be really early to class. That would just mean more sitting-and-stareing time. One of the girls at the table, Hinata, a really shy girl with long black-blue hair and gorgous silver-hazel eyes with a tendency to blush and stutter at everything, had Boilogy II with me and walked there with me. Little was said on the way to the fifth floor, due to her extreme shyness and my lack of anything interesting to say to her. Yet, despite the quiet, I could tell we were going to be great friends.

When we walked into class, Hinata walked over to sit at a black-topped lab tables just like the ones in California. She already had a partner. Damn. If fact, looking around, I could see everyone had a partner but one. Sasuke Uchiha sat by the only open spot in the whole class. Double damn.

Walking over to Mrs. Tusnade, I saw she was a pretty young woman in her twenties with the _biggest _breats ever! Seriously, they're like triple 38 D's or something. Anyway, back on track. As I passed Sasuke to reach her desk, he suddenly went rigid in his seat. Looking at his face, I saw it was full of hostitlity and hate. I stumbled over a bag at the edge of a table and had to catch myself on the edge of a desk when I noticed his eyes. They were black, coal black. After I got my slip signed, she directed me to the seat by Sasuke. As I sat down, I kept my eyes down, but I could still see him slid his seat as far away from mine as possible, scrunching up his nose as if he smelled something bad. As inconspicuously as possible for me, I sniffed my hair. Vanilla. Innocent enough smell. I let my long, pink hair make a thick curtain between us, and tried to pay attention. Too bad the lesson was on cellular anatomy, something I was a pro at. Still, to avoid any kind of contact, I kept my eyes down and on the notes.

Even though I tried to not look at him, there were gaps in my hair that made him all too visible. He never once relaxed him extremely tensed position. Seriously, what was up with this guy. For one thing, he hadn't even spoken to me and he already seemed to completly and utterly hate me. For another, you think a person would get tired of sitting in the same freaking position for fifty minutes! Sometimes, I could of sworn he wasn't breathing.

At long last, the now-scared bell rang, and like in first period, I jumped five feet in the air. He jumped out of his seat too, but it was just so he could leave the room as fast as possible. Sheesh, if I didn't know any better, I would've said he freaking_ flew _out. Weird guy. Wonder if he was always like this. Maybe Ino wasn't as bitter as I gave her credit.

As I was getting my books together, a voice suddenly spoke. "Are you Sakura Haruno?"

Looking up, I saw a cute boy with long brown hair pulled into a ponytail with beautiful hazel eyes similar to Hinata's.

"That's my name!" I answered with a smile. Can you blame me, the guy was totally boyfriend-material.

"I'm Neji."

"Hi, Neji."

"Do you need any help finding your next class?" he asked surprisingly poliete.

"No thanks, I'm heading over to the gym. I think even a newcomer like me can find it."

"That's my next class. I'll walk with you." he smirked and I did a mini-blush. I was pretty happy that he had a class or two with me, even though in a school as small as this, it shouldn't be a surprise.

We walked side-by-side, talking about ourselves. He was a chatter, yet not nearly as bad as Ino so I managed to say a few things too. He had lived in Konoha all his life , like Kiba, but had mad a few trips out to Spain and Greece, to study the different cultures there. Turns out he was in my English class too. Score!!! But as we were walking into the gym, he asked, "So, did you stab Sasuke Uchiha with a pen or something? He's never acted like that before."

Crap. There goes my theroy about that being normal behavior for him. Maybe playing dumb will get me some answers.

"Was that the boy I sat next to in Boilogy?" I asked artlessly.

"Yea," he said. "He looked like he was in pain or something."

"I honestly don't know. I didn't speak to him."

"Well that's a shame." Neji ligered by my side instead of heading to the locker rooms. "If I had the chance to sit next to a pretty girl like you, I would of definetly talked to her."

I smiled at him and quickely went inside the girls changing room, fighting back a major blush and the urge to speal. Sweetnes!! A hot guy thinks I'm pretty!! Maybe Konoha isn't as bad as I had though after all.

But that feeling quickly vanished after getting a look at the gym teacher. Agh! I'm gonna need new eyes! The teacher, Mighto Gai, was, in-the-most-basic-words-possible, the biggest freak on Earth. No joke! He had one of those seriously ugly upside-down bowl shaped haircuts, eyebrows that should be in a circus, and a freaking green spandex suit! _Please_ tell me that's not the uniform! I'll never survive. I will refuse to wear that and would just take an F for the whole year! It was that bad.

Thankfully, you had the option to wear the spandex suit, or bring your own gym clothes. Looking around, I didn't see a single spandex suit. Wait, scratch that. A miniture version of Gai just walked out of the boys changing room. Ugh. Not any better. Luckily, Mr. Gai didn't make me do anything today, just sit and watch the other kids play four games of volleyball. Oi. I remembered all the injuries that I got, and returned, in gym in the last year alone. The kids had better learn to duck if they knew what was good for them.

At long last, the final bell rang, signaling the end of the day. I walked sluggishly to the front office to return the slip of paper signed by all my teachers. As I walked into the warm office, I almost walked right back out. Sasuke was talking urgently to the receptionist from this morning. I pressed myself into the wall, hoping he wouldn't notice me. From what I could tell, he was trying to switch his Biology to another time; any other time.

My head was reeling. There had to be a third element in this equation. Something must have happened to him before I walked into Biology. It was physically impossible for this total stranger to have such a strong sudden dislike of me.

The door opened again, and with it came a slight wind, just enough so that my hair swirled around my face. The girl who had opened the door quickly placed a tardy sheet into a basket by the door that I had not noticed before and quickly walked back out again. But Sasuke's back stiffened, and he slowly turned around to face me, the hate back in his face again. For a spilt second, I felt fear. Not the kind of fear that you get when your supposed best friend dragges you on blind date and didn't even tell you the person's freaking name, or the kind of fear that you get when you go on one of those wooden rollor coasters and it feels like it going to break any second and hurl you to your doom. No, this was the kind of fear that makes your blood freeze in your veins, the kind that makes you want to run away as fast as possible, but also makes it so that you can't even move a finger. THAT kind of fear. The feeling only lasted a moment, yet I knew I was offically going to stay as far away from this guy as I could.

Sasuke turned back to the receptionist and said, "Never mind, I can see that it's impossible. Thank you for your patience and time." in a velvety smooth voice, and quickly walked out of the office, not once sparing me a glance. I slowly walked up to the receptionist with a white face instead of my usual red.

"Hello again dear, how was your first day?

"Fine," I lied, my voice still a bit weak. She didn't look convinced.

When I finally got back to my car, all the other students' cars were gone; only the teacher's and staff's cars remained. I crawled in my new found haven, turned the heater on high, and just stared out the window blackly, remembering those eyes. But I eventually looked at the clock, and realized that if I stayed in the school parking lot any longet, Senju would start to worry. So, working on autopuilot, I put the car into revese and headed home, fighting tears of fear the whole way.

* * *

**Another chapter done! Sheesh, this one took forever to do. Just not enough time in the day. I worked really hard on this because I wanted to get this out for you guys so you could have something to read over spring break. I'm heading to Florida on Sunday and can't freaking wait! Beaches and the ocean. And the sun. Man, do I miss the sun or what! It's still too freaking cold where I am. There is still snow on the ground! Anyway, you know the deal, reviews are my happy pills! Love you all! Ja Ne!**


	6. Chapter 5

**What's up people, I'm back! Did you miss me? Course you did! Anyway, Florida was freaking amazing! I went to the mall, got some seriously cute tanks to wear cause it is H.O.T. out, got sunburned at the beach a couple times, went to St. Augustine. Went to see the Bounty Hunter and despite really bad reviews, the movie ROCKS!!!!! Driving home, I saw a freaking cow-pig! That's right people, there is such a thing. It's a black-and-white-spotted wild pig! With little baby pigs too!! I would have updated earlier but I had this huge History project that I had to work on. My History teacher hates me, so he only gave me a week to do it. Then, after that one was finished, the big meanie turns around and gives us an even bigger one! I've also been a little distracted by me FINALLY getting my leaner's permit. So, now-a-days, I am trying to avoid hitting other cars, little kids, wheel barrels, and cute little, fearless bunnies! Anyway I will stop talking now and let you guys read.**

**P.S. Me no own Naruto or Twilight!**

**

* * *

**Chapter 5

The next day was better.....and worse.

Better because it didn't rain so I was able to get some good sleep. It was a bit cloudy though. Oh well. Can't have it all. I knew what to expect today at school with teachers and other peoples so that's another plus. Neji sat by me in English and walked me to my next class, with Kiba glaring at him the whole time. People didn't stare at me as much as yesterday. Sure, they did stare at me; it just wasn't 24/7 this time. I sat at a big table again at lunch that included Neji, Kiba, Hinata, Ino, and a bunch of other people who I was at least able to recognize.

It was worse because, even though I slept better than the night before, I still hadn't recovered from losing all that precious sleep. It was worse because Mr. Iruka called on me in Trig when I was dozing and I didn't know the answer. It was awful because I actually had to play volleyball in Gym. The one time I didn't duck when the ball came my way, I hit the mini version of Gai in the head and knocked him out. Poor guy. He never saw it coming. It was worse because Sasuke wasn't at school.

The whole day I was dreading lunch, thinking about his strange behavior towards me the day before. I spent the day deciding what to do about him. Option 1.) Demand to know what his problem was. Option 2.) Punch the shit out of him and then demand to know what his problem was. Option 3.) Ignore him completely. Option 1 was definitely and idea, but I'd probably back out at the last minute. Option 2 was preferable, but I would probably get in huge trouble for it. Option 3 was out of the question because I knew I couldn't ignore him forever and it was better to get this problem over with sooner than later. Besides, I'd go nuts not knowing. I figured I'd know what I'd do when I saw him again. As I walked into the cafeteria with Ino chattering by my side, I did a quick sweep of the area. His four other siblings were sitting in the same place as before, but he was nowhere to be found. My heat seemed to rise and sank at the same time for some strange reason.

Neji and Kiba intercepted us and steered us towards the table. Ino seemed particularly happy about Kiba's attention. I tried hard to listen to their chatter, along with the rest of the now-crowded table, but I just found myself become tense, waiting for the moment when he would walk in. Maybe he would just sit at his table and ignore me, proving my suspicions wrong. But by the end of lunch, he still hadn't shown.

As I became more and more certain that he wasn't going to show up, the more and more relieved I felt. I was able to pass through Biology without a care. Best of all, Neji came by and walked me to Gym again. Hell Yeah! He was talking about getting a beach party together and wanted to know if I could go. Double Hell Yeah!!

After school was over and the blush was fading from my cheeks from the volleyball incident, I changed back into my dark blue skinny jeans and color-splashed hoodie. Pulling up the hood to avoid getting my hair all wet again, I hurried outside to the heaven that was my car. Climbing in, I made sure that I still had the list of food needed that Senju had given me before school today and the hundred fifty dollars and thirty-five cents he gave me to buy the food with. Personally, I thought that the extra thirty-five cents wasn't necessary, but I took it anyway.

* * *

Turns out that the extra thirty-five cents was needed. The one thing that I had noticed about Senju was that he liked to cook. You could tell just by looking at the list of things I needed to buy. The thing practically reached to floor. I didn't even know that some of this existed. Two hours and twenty-two minutes later, the grand total was one hundred, forty-nine dollars and thirty-five cents. All I'm saying is that the last dollar is _mine_!

Hulling all the grocery bags out of the car and into the kitchen was a work-out itself, but finding out where everything went was another thing entirely. As a kid, I had never really understood why the kitchen had so many cabinets in it. Now, I have had the unfortunate pleasure of finding out why. Half an hour later, I took my school bag upstairs to start my homework. Throwing the bag by the desk, I put on a pair of black, white, pink, and gray sweats with a matching tank top and pulled my hair up into a ponytail, to keep my hair out of my eyes. But before starting homework, I checked my email out of habit. There were three messages, all from Rose.

_Hey Sakura, write me as soon as you get in. Tell me how your flight was. Is it raining 24/7 still? I miss you already. I'm almost finished packing for Florida, but I can't find my light blue blouse. Do you have any idea where it is because Lord knows that I don't? Mason says hi. Mom._

I sighed and shook my head, same old Rose. The next email was sent eight hours later.

_Sakura, why haven't you emailed me back? Did something happen? What are you waiting for? Mom._

The last one was from about 8:00 this morning.

_Sakura,_

_If I hadn't heard from you by 6:45 p.m. tonight, I'm calling Senju._

Looking at the digital clock at the right-hand corner of the computer, I could see that I had fifteen minutes. I could be mean and not email her, but then she would call Senju, and then call my cell, and I would get chewed out by both of them. Sighing again, I typed,-

_Mom, power down. I'm writing right now so you don't need to do anything stupid, okay? _I quickly sent that before starting another.

_Mom,_

_Everything is fine. Nothing major happened in the past forty-eight hours so stop freaking out. Okay? Yes it is still raining here. Konoha hasn't stopped raining in the past century so I doubt it would stop just because I now live here. School isn't that bad. It still has to be bad because it's still school, but the people here are nice enough. Your blouse is probably behind the laundry basket. That's normally where all your missing clothes end up. You know, since you like to shoot rolled up clothes at it like basketball and always miss? I miss you too. I'll write again soon, but I'm not going to check my email every five seconds. You know me better than that. I love you! Sakura._

Sighing for the third time now, I leaned back into the old chair and stretched before getting out _Romeo and Juliet_, the novel that we were now reading in English. Oi. Shakespeare talk is so confusing. I have severe doubts that this was how people talked back in his time. Course, what do I know?

About a fourth of the way thru the book, I heard the front door squeak open and rushed downstairs to greet Senju. Any excuse to get away from that book.

"Sakura, is that you?" Senju asked cautiously.

"Who else would it be?" I asked, jumping the last two steps and hugging him. He only grunted in reply.

"What's for dinner?" I asked him after he took his boots off, put his gun away in the closet, and hung his jacket up.

"Something simple. How does steak and potatoes sound to you?"

"Yummy!" That being said, I walked into the kitchen with the intention of helping him make said-steak-and-potatoes, but was promptly shooed out of the kitchen to finish my homework. Damn, thought he forgot about homework.

When I had finished my Trig homework and had gotten halfway through _Romeo and Juliet_, Senju finally called me down for dinner. About Freaking Time! I could smell dinner thru the vents and my stomach hasn't stopped growling since!

"Wow Dad, this looks, and smells, great!"

"Thanks."

We ate in silence for a few minutes. Then Senju decided to actually act like a dad and asked me about my classes ( Their okay, considering that I didn't actually feel the need to sleep in class today), the teachers ( Some are nice, some are mean, and some, like my gym teacher Gai, are just plain crazy!), the school size ( Don't even get me started on that!), and if I had made any new friends.

"Yea, there is this one girl, Ino, who I have in both Trigonometry and Spanish. She is nice enough, just really talkative. And this other girl, Hinata, I have her for Biology, she is really shy but I can tell she is really sweet. And there are these really great guys, Kiba and Neji, who are very helpful."

"They must be Ino Yakamara, Hinata and Neji Huugya, and Kiba Inuzuka. They all come from really good backgrounds."

"Are Hinata and Neji related?"

"Yes, cousins."

After a few more minutes of silence, I hesitantly, "Do you know the Uchiha family?"

"Dr. Fugaku's family?" Sure. He's a really great surgeon at the hospital."

"They....the kids....are a little different. They don't seem to fit in well at school."

Senju surprised me by looking very angry. "People in the town...Dr. Fugaku is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world and make ten times the salary he gets here." he continued, getting louder. "We're lucky that his wife, sweet little thing she is, wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all those kids are well-behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved here, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature - haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should - camping trips every other weekend.....Just because they're new, people have to talk."

That was the longest speech I'd ever heard Senju make. I'm pretty sure my jaw wasn't hanging wide open, but hey, I wasn't completely sure. He must feel strongly about whatever people were saying. Or just really greatful to Dr. Fugaku. So thinking fast, I quickly backpedaled. "They seem nice enough to me. I just noticed they seemed to keep to themselves. They all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary.

"You should see the doctor. It's a good thing he's married happily. The nurses have a hard enough time concentrating as is."

We lapsed back into silence as we finished eating. He cleared the table while I started on the dishes. He went back to his precious TV, and after I finished washing the dishes by hand - no dishwasher since he wasn't the most technical person ever - I went upstairs to finish the damn book. I felt myself smiling at the thought of this becoming a tradition in the making.

The night came fast and I was able to fall asleep quickly, exhausted.

* * *

The rest of the week was uneventful. I didn't get the chance to hit the volleyball in gym. The other kids were starting to learn. Good. No need to send any innocent people to the nurse's office or hospital. Hinata was starting to lose her horrible habit of stuttering around me. Neji and I talked more while Kiba just kept giving the evil eye to Neji. The best part, excluding the Neji parts of course, was that I was able to recognize, if not name, almost all the students at school. Not that hard since there were so few of them.

Sasuke Uchiha didn't come back to school.

Every day, I watched anxiously until the rest of the Uchiha's entered the cafeteria without him. Then I could release the breath I was holding and join in the lunchtime conversations. Mostly it was centered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in two weeks that Neji was putting together. I was invited, and I agreed to go, happy at the thought of finally getting some sun.

By Friday I was perfectly comfortable entering my Biology class, no longer worried about Sasuke. The cowardly part of me hoped he didn't come back. The other part was saying that somehow, it was my fault that he was gone. I furiously tried to crush that part of me.

My first weekend at Konoha was fairly uneventful. Senju, who like, never, had any company over during the weekend, worked both days. I seriously need to work on getting him a girlfriend. I mean, seriously, Rose has already remarried, and he hasn't even _looked _at a girl since the divorce.

While Senju was out, I managed to clean the whole house, top to bottom, wrote a long email to Rose about school, flipped through all 600 channels of TV three times, trying to find something to decent to watch, and got ahead of my homework because I had nothing else to do. But I did manage to get to the local library because I would go insane if the only thing I had to read was Shakespeare. But the library was so poorly stocked that I didn't even bother to get a card. Note to self: make time for a trip to Tokyo for books and shopping. Ino would definitely be up for shopping, but maybe I could drag Hinata along. She looks like she needs some more help in the social department.

I'm starting to get used to the sound of rain at night so I was able to sleep well both nights.

* * *

Waking up to the sound of my cell phone playing the chorus to _Fighter by Christina Aguilera _on Monday morning, I felt like I could get used to Konoha. People greeted me at school. Since I didn't know most of their names, I just smiled and waved back at them. It was colder this morning, but happily not raining, so I had dressed in long-sleeved black Aeropostale shirt with a white camisole underneath, small diamond key necklace, light blue skinny jeans and black and white Converse shoes. In English, Neji took his accustomed seat by my side. There was a pop quiz on Romeo and Juilet but it wasn't that hard. I mean, the book barely has a plot line to it. Romeo and Juliet fall in love at a ball, they get married, and they both die because they though the other one was dead.

All in all, I was feeling a lot better about Konoha than I thought I would feel by this time. Hell, more comfortable than I thought I would ever feel here.

When we walked out of class, the air outside was full of swirling bits of white. People were yelling and talking excitedly, running outside to try to catch the snow in their mouths. The wind that blew in from the open doors bit at my nose, cheeks, and ears.

"Wow," Neji said. "It's snowing."

"God damnit. Gross." Snow. Such a pretty day earlier and then what happens. It snows. There goes my good day.

Neji looked surprised. "You don't like snow?"

"No, that just means that it's too cold to rain." I replied angrily, shaking my head, hoping to avoid getting the snow out in my hair. Otherwise, it would start to turn into a big puff ball. "Besides, I thought it was supposed to come down in flakes --- you know, each one unique and all that crap. These just look like someone cut off the ends of trillions of Q-tips and tossed them in the air."

"Haven't you ever seen snow fall before you came here?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course I have." I paused. "On TV."

Neji laughed. Then out of nowhere, a big squishy ball of dripping snow smacked into the back of his head. I turned quickly and suddenly had my suspicions about Kiba who was walking away from us, in the wrong direction for his next class. Neji was probably thinking the same thing I was because he bent towards the ground to start scoping up snow.

"I'll see you at lunch, okay?" I started walking back inside as I spoke to try to avoid the war that was about to happen. "Once people start throwing wet stuff, I go inside and out of range."

He just nodded, never taking his eyes off of Kiba's retreating back. I laughed at his serious face.

Throughout the morning, everyone chattered excitedly about the sudden snowfall. I just kept my mouth shut. Sure, it was drier than rain, that is, until it started to melt in your socks. Then it's not any fun at all.

I walked alertly between classes, because even though we were inside, people brought in snowballs in hopes of nailing someone with them. I made sure to keep a binder in my hands to stop any oncoming attacks. Ino kept laughing about it, thinking I was hilarious. She even tried asking some random kids if they had a snowball she could use. I quickly dragged her away before she could get one.

Neji caught up with us as we were walking into the cafeteria, laughing again as he shook his head around to get some slush out of his hair. He and Ino immediately started talking about his epic snowball fight with Kiba as we got our food and sat down. I glanced over at the Uchiha table out of habit. My heart seemed to stop. There were five people sitting at the table.

Ino pulled at my arm and said "Hey Sakura, you okay? You look kind of sick." I couldn't of replied if I wanted to, still frozen at the sight of the five.

"What's wrong Sakura?" Neji asked worriedly.

"I'm fine guys, just not as hungry as I thought I was." I replied, taking a worried sip from my soda. Twice more, Neji asked with concern how I was feeling. I just kept telling that it was nothing, but the cowardly part of me wondered if I _should_ play it up and go the nurse's office. Ridiculous. I shouldn't have to run away.

"Alright," I told myself. "One glance at the table. If he is glaring, we skip Biology, like the cowards we are. But if he isn't, then we go."

Taking a deep breath, I looked up at their table. They were laughing. Sasuke, Gaara, and Suigestu all had their hair entirely drenched in melting snow. Matsuri and Karin were leaning away as Suigestsu shook his head at them like a dog. They were enjoying the snowy day like everyone else, only they looked like they were doing a scene from a movie with the way they looked.

But, aside from the obvious laughter and playfulness, I could see that there was something different about them, but I just couldn't see what it was. I looked at Sasuke the hardest. His skin seemed less pale, I decided. Most likely flushed from a snow fight maybe. The circles under his eyes were much less noticeable. But there was something more. I kept staring, trying to find what else was different about them.

"Sakura, what are you staring at?" Ino intruded, her eyes trying to follow mine.

It was at that exact moment that his eyes flashed over to meet mine.

I dropped my head quickly, letting my pink hair become a curtain over my face. I was sure, though, in the instant that our eyes met, that he didn't look harsh or unfriendly like the last time we met. He looked strangely curious, unsatisfied in some way.

"Sasuke Uchiha is staring at you." Ino giggled in my ear. I couldn't help myself from asking, "He doesn't look angry, does he?"

"No," she said, sounding confused my question. "Should he be?"

"I don't think he likes me very much." I replied, putting my head on the table in order to resist the temptation of looking over at him. My stomach churned.

"The Uchihas don't like anybody.....at least, they never get close enough to people to like them. But he is still looking at you!"

"Stop looking at him!" I hissed.

She snickered at my tone, but complied. I raised my head to make sure that it stayed that way, contemplating violence if she resisted.

Neji interruppted us then. He was planning an epic battle of the blizzard in the parking lot after school and wanted to know if we would join. Ino agreed enthusiasticlly. The way she looked at left little doubt that she would be up for anything he asked. I admit, my earlier admiration was starting to fade, so maybe I could play the role of matchmaker between the two. Meanwhile, I kept silent to his request. Maybe I could hide out in the gym until it was over.

The rest of the lunch hour passed uneventfully. I made sure to keep my eyes off of _that_ table. I had to practically force myself to get up and head to Biology when the bell rang. Since he didn't look angry I had to go to class. Stupid self-promise. My stomach did little flip-flops at the thought of going to class.

I didn't really want to walk with Neji to class like I normally did, partly because I was scared and that he seemed to be a popular target for snowball snippets in the hallways.

Once inside the classroom, I sighed with temporary relief that our table was still empty. Mrs. Tsunade was walking around the room, distributing a microscope and a small box of slides to each table. Hm. Wonder what lab we were doing today. Class didn't start for a few more minutes so people were talking to their neighbors. I kept my eyes firmly glued to my light green notebook, drawing patterns over the cover.

I clearly heard the chair next to mine move back, but kept my eyes on my notebook.

"Hello," said a quiet, musical voice.

I quickly spun around to face him, stunned that he actually spoke to me. Hot damn, was he gorgeous. He was sitting as far back as the table allowed, but his chair was angled toward me. His hair was wet from the snow, probably thrown from one of his brothers, yet still, the hair in the back managed to stick up, kind of like a duck's butt. On any other guy it would have looked retarded, but it totally suited him. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a small smirk on his thin, flawless lips. But his eyes were cautious.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Sakura Haruno."

My head was like the inside of a washing machine, spinning around and around. Had I made up his whole behavior last week? No, I could never manage to dream up that kind of face. Besides, even Neji was wondering what was up with him. But now he was perfectly polite. Okay enough analyzing, he's waiting for you to speak.

"H-how do you k-know my name?" My God, did I just stutter? Maybe Hinata is rubbing off on me.

He laughed a soft, enchanting, endearing laugh. "Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town has been waiting for you to come."

I grimaced. Figures. This had Senju written all over it. Thankfully, Mrs. Tusnade decided now was the time to start class. I tried to concentrate on her while she explained today's lab. Apparently, we were supposed to look at the slides of onion root tips and place them in the correct phases of mitosis with your lab partner. No textbooks and she would be watching us to make sure we didn't cheat. In twenty minutes, she would look at our sheets to see how far we were along.

"Get started," she commanded.

"Ladies first, partner? Sasuke asked. I looked up to see him smirking such a heart-stoppping smirk that I almost fainted. Almost.

"Or I could start, if you wish." The smirk faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent.

"No," I said, flushing with embarresment. "I'll go ahead."

Okay, so maybe I was showing off since I had already done this lab and knew what to look for. But I did need to make up for making myself look stupid in front of him. I snapped the first slide into place under the microscope and adjusted it quickely. Looking quickly, I confidently said, "Prophase."

"Mind if I take a look?" he asked as I began to remove the slide. His hand caught mine, to stop me, as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold, like they had been locked in a freezer for a couple hours. But that wasn't why I jerked my hand away. Well, it was a little bit that, but mostly the electric current that ran threw me. The same fear that I had when I had last seen him came back, reminding me that despite his looks, this guy was dangerous.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. He got the micrcoscope and examined it in an even shorter time than I had.

"Prophase." he agreed, writing the answer on our worksheet. "Just like I said." I randomly sputtered out.

"Yea, just like you said." he repeated, the smirk back on his face. He then switched slides and after a moment, pronouned "Anaphase."

"Mind if I take a look?" I asked expertly.

"Aa." He smirked again, pushing the micrcoscope towards me. I eagerly looked through the microscope hoping to prove him wrong. Damn, he was right.

"Slide three." I asked, holding my hand out for it without looking at him. He handed it to me, making sure he didn't touch my skin again.

I took the most fleeting glimpse that I could. "Interphase." I passed the microscope towards him before he could ask. He glanced at it too, before writing it on the worksheet. Sure, I could of written the answer while he was looking, but his perfect handwriting intimidated me. Rose once joked that I should be a doctor because doctors were the only people who could have horrible handwriting.

We were finished before anyone else was even close. Neji and his partner had gotten yelled at for trying to use their textbooks. And this other group in front of us kept arguing on wheter this one slide was Telophase or not. Which left me with nothing to do but try to ignore Sasuke's probing gaze. Seriously, this guy needed to make up his mind. Either he hated me, or he wanted to get to know me better.

I did glance up at him once, only to realize what was so different about him from the last time.

"Did you get contacts?" I blurted out immediately, of course without thinking it through.

He seemed generally confused about my question. "No."

"Oh," I mumbled. "Sorry, I just thought that there was something different about your eyes."

He just shrugged and looked away.

No. I was sure there was something different with his eyes. Last week, when he glared at me, his eyes were pitch black, the color contrasting with his place face and matching his hair perfectly. Today, his eyes were a startling shade of red. I couldn't see how they could have changed so much, unless he was lying about the contacts. But why would he lie? Again, that little voice in the back of my head was telling me to stay away from him, that I was getting to deep into something that I shouldn't be getting into.

I looked down again. His hands were once again clenched into tight fists. That little voice seemed to get bigger at that sight. Mrs. Tsunade then came over to see why we weren't working, first glancing only to see our completed worksheet, and then staring harder to check the answers.

"So, Sasuke, didn't you think that Sakura should get a chance with the microscope?" she asked him.

"Actually, she identified three out of the five." he replied.

Tsunade then looked at me skeptically. "Have you done this lab before Sakura?" she asked, suspicion clear in her voice.

I blushed, smiled sheepishly and replied. "Yea, just with whitefish blastula instead of onion root."

She nodded and smiled at us. "Well, I guess it's a good thing that you two are lab partners." She walked away to yell at Neji and his partner for trying to use their books again. I started doodling on my notebook again.

"It's about time that some snow came around here, don't you agree?" he suddenly asked. Paranoia swept through me. It was like he had heard my conversation with Neji and Ino.

"Not really," I answered honestly, instead of pretending to be normal like everyone else. I was still trying to dislodge the stupid feeling of suspicion, and I couldn't concentrate.

"You don't like the cold." It wasn't a question.

"Or the rain."

"Konoha must be a really difficult place for you to live in." he mused.

"You have no idea." I replied darkly. He seemed fascinated by my response for some strange reason. Hell, everything about this guy is strange.

"Why did you come here?" I was surprised. No one had asked me that yet, at least, not outright like that, all demanding and stuff.

"It's....complicated." "I think I can keep up." he pressed.

I paused for a long time, trying to find the right way to say it. I made the mistake of looking at his eyes again, and answered without thinking. "My mother got remarried." I said.

"That doesn't sound so complex." he disagreed, but his voice was suddenly sympathetic. "When did it happen?"

"Last September." My voice sounded sad, even to me.

"And you don't like him." Sasuke summarized, his tone still kind and understanding.

"No, Mason is fine. Maybe a bit too young but a good guy."

"Then why don't you stay with them?"

His sudden interest in me kind of creeped me out. I mean, he was acting like my dull life's story was suddenly vitally important to him. But there was something about his eyes that kept me talking.

"Mason travels a lot. He plays baseball for a living." I half-smiled.

"Have I heard of him?" he asked, smirking in response.

"Mostly likely not. I didn't say he played _well. _Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot."

"And your mother sent you here so she could travel around with him." he said it as an assumption again, not as a question.

My temper flared up. "She didn't send me here, I sent myself."

His face showed his confusion. "I don't understand. Why would you do that, when you obviously don't enjoy being here?"

I sighed, my temper dying down as quickly as it had flared. Again, someone remind me why was I explaining this stuff to him. "She stayed with me at first, but she was unhappy and missed him. So I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Senju." My voice sounded sad again by the time I was finished.

"But now your unhappy," he pointed out.

"And?" I challenged, raising one eyebrow at him.

"That doesn't seem fair to me is all I'm saying." He shrugged, by his eyes were still way too intense for my likings.

I laughed without humor. "Hasn't anybody ever told you? Life isn't fair."

"I believe that I _have _heard that somewhere." he agreed dryly.

"So that's all." I said, hoping that would make him stop staring at me like he was. His gaze was appraising. "You put on a good show," he said slowly, "But I'm willing to bet that you're suffering more than you let on to be."

I grimaced at him, resisting the urge to tick my tongue out at him like a little kid, and turned away.

"Am I wrong?"

No response on my end.

"I didn't think so." he murmured smugly, the smirk most likely back on his face.

"Why does it matter to _you_?" I irritated asked while turning around to face him.

"That's a very good question." he said very quietly, as if he was asking himself that very same question. After a few more moments, it seemed like that was the only answer I was going to get, so I turned to watch Tusnade make her rounds.

"Am I annoying you?" he asked, sounding amused.

I glanced at him again without thinking......and again spoke the truth. "Not really.....I'm more annoyed at myself. I'm so easy to read. Rose always calls me an open book."

"On the contrary, I find you rather difficult to read." Despite all the things he had guessed at and said, he sounded like he really meant this.

"You must be a good reader then."

"Normally. But with you, it's a lot harder. Wonder why that is?" he asked, both curiosity and amusement in his voice.

Mrs. Tsunade called class to order again, and I turned with relief to listen. I cannot believe that I had just explained my dreary life story to this beautiful, yet dangerous guy who may or may not despise me. He had seemed intrested in our conversation, but taking a quick peek at him now, I could see that he was leaning away from me again, all tense once more. Looking back, I tried to look like I was paying attention to what Mrs. Tsunade was saying about the slides and showing what you should have seen on the microscope.

When the bell finally rang, Sasuke exited the classroom as swiftly as last Monday. And like last Monday, I could only stare after him in amazement. Neji came to stand by my side like always and groaned. "That was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. They all looked exactly the same. You're lucky you had Uchiha as a partner."

"I didn't have any trouble with it," I said, stung by his assumption. I regretted the snub instantly. "But I have done the lab before so..." I added to avoid any hurt feelings.

"Uchiha seems friendly enough today," he commented as we walked through the now-familiar halls. He didn't seem pleased about it. I tried to sound indifferent. "Wonder what was with him last Monday."

I couldn't concentrate on Neji's usual chatter today. Gym wasn't helping out either. Neji was on my team today. He chivalrously covered both of our positions when the other team tried to take advantage of my weakness. So the only time I got near the ball was when it was my turn to serve. My team ducked warily out of the way.

Walking back outside, everyone groaned. A sudden rain shower had washed all the snow away. I managed to contain my happiness, even though there was a high chance that my hair would start to wig out. I crossed the parking lot quickly and once I climbed in and turned the car on, cranked on the heater and fluffed out my hair in hopes of avoiding a hair-disaster.

Looking around me to make sure that I could pull out and go home, I saw the still, white figure of Sasuke Uchiha standing in front of a silver Volvo five cars down from me, staring at me intently. I looked away swiftly and threw my car in reverse, almost hitting a navy blue Ford F-150 truck. Luckily for both of our cars, I managed to hit the brakes in time. Taking a few good deep breaths, I pulled out with greater success. I kept my eyes straight ahead of me as I passed the Volvo, but from a quick peripheral peek, I would swear I saw him laughing.

* * *

OMFG FINALLY DONE!!!! I would have had this chapter done sooner, but the Internet decided to screw with me and erase half of the story. And with 6,675 words, that a lot of story to rewrite. Anyway, you know the drill, review, review, and review! Ja Ne!


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